Allardyce: Reid not right

Sam Allardyce has questioned the sense of Winston Reid's call-up by New Zealand for their internationals with Tahiti over the past week.

PUBLISHED: 21:37, Thu, Oct 18, 2012

West Ham's Winston Reid is nursing a back injury [PA]

The defender did little more than cheer on his team-mates in New Zealand after making the 24-hour journey with a back injury he sustained earlier this month. Reid remains in doubt for West Ham's Barclays Premier League fixture with Southampton this weekend, much to Allardyce's frustration.

"I don't see any sense in calling them over and particularly that far, because they are injured. I don't see any sense it in at all," he said. "I also think there was an underlining factor that they didn't trust him or us that he was injured."

He added: "There's another underlining factor that tells me that the players are brought there and then they're put under enormous pressure to play, because of the loyalties to the country by the coaches and certain political elements which they have to resist.

"On one hand I'm all for international football but it doesn't make any sense to take them because they can't play. I don't understand that at all," he said.

Allardyce is also relieved to have Mohamed Diame and Guy Demel back at Upton Park unscathed after riots forced the Senegal v Ivory Coast Africa Cup match to be abandoned on Sunday. Diame was shielded by police as he fled to the dressing room late in the second half when crowd violence in the stadium erupted on to the pitch.

"We had two very important players away in that horrific situation ... they've come back okay," he said.

Andy Carroll also failed to take to the pitch in his trip abroad, remaining on the bench in England's 1-1 draw with Poland after coming on in the second half against San Marino at Wembley last Friday.

"Obviously Andy would have liked to have played more than he did. But he got 17 minutes against San Marino," Allardyce said.

"He's with a group of very talented players in a very competitive two weeks and the training that they will have done will hopefully help continue with the growth of his fitness for us. And he'll continue to stay fit from here on in and hopefully for a long period of time."